Included on TIME's "What to Read Now: Summer Reading"
¡°The plight of an orphan whose teenage mother disappears after giving birth to him in a bus terminal sets of Kim¡¯s dark tale about teenage gangs and the underside of Korean city life¡¦ Donggyu, though still a teenager, leaves the comforts of home to join him, and his feelings about Jae, which waver from adoration to murderous jealousy, are vividly portrayed¡¦ Kim casts an unwavering spotlight on the gritty street life of teenagers, capturing their angst, ennui, and vulnerability.¡± -PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
¡°Elegantly rendered into English by Lee, author of How I Became a North Korean (she is also translating Kim¡¯s next novel), this is a wrenching examination of discarded youth, abuses of power, and the irreparable disintegration of societal structures.¡±
-BOOKLIST
"Kim (I Have the Right to Destroy Myself, 2010, etc.), a prolific and eclectic Korean novelist, has found artistically fertile ground in the broken lives of his country¡¯s misfits¡¦ Like the shifting gears of an engine, Kim¡¯s narrative changes perspectives from Donggyu¡¯s first-person recollections to wide-screen omniscience to the point of view of an enigmatic police officer and even to that of the author himself, following a climactic motorcycle rally whose stunning denouement leaves behind many more questions than answers¡¦ [Kim¡¯s]own empathetic gifts applied toward even the quirkiest and seediest of his characters evoke a vivid panorama of what life along the edges is like in Seoul."
-KIRKUS REVIEWS